KiwiCat's updates

my cancer journey, and other stuff

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  • October 2026
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    Halfway through

    I’ve held off posting this one until today. My third dose was over a week ago now but I waited to claim the halfway mark after the recovery.  Today I’m there, back to managing full work days, back to being able to nip out at morning tea to hang out the washing, back to what counts as normal for now.

    Next week I have a scan, and the following week I meet with my oncologist but there’s no reason to think any of this going to change; I’ve done 3 doses, I have 3 to go.

    After the next one I’ll be 2/3rds done. After the fifth, 5/6ths. Then just the last and we’re done.

    Sounds easy, right?

    In the meantime, in spite of the chilly nights and mornings we’re getting spectacular days. Today the sea is so blue, it looks like a summer scene. It you’re in the sunshine and out of the wind it even feels like it.

    Full tide blue sea

    I guess spring is on its way. The garden seems to think so, I have freesias popping up here and there, my favourite spring flower. They’re the old fashioned ones, frailer than the hardy varieties you can buy now but still so fragrant.

    freesia by the front steps
    freesia poking out of the gardenia

    Then there’s our latest acquisition, a new plum tree. The gale force winds blowing ever since it went in the ground have been blocked by other established trees, fortunately. We’re hoping it will help pollinate the existing tree but also eventually just take over because the other one is never going to get much sun. This one should do better once it’s established.

    Daisy Days inspecting the Black Doris plum tree

    The theory is the new fig will get in the ground soon too but if spring starts this early we’re running behind. We took a cutting from the existing one which is healthy but gets no sun at all. The rootball formed and it’s now in soil but we want to get it settled and perhas weathered a little before final planting.

    Baby fig tree
  • October 2026
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    Dose 3 tomorrow

    All going well by this time tomorrow I’ll be halfway through this round of chemotherapy, a nice milestone.

    The weather is also supposed to be pleasant, if chilly, so that’s a nice change from the rain and gloom of the last two trips.

    For no reason other than I think it’s cute, here are Leroy and Daisy Days enjoying the view on Sunday when it was still gloomy.

  • October 2026
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    Bloggy stuff

    I’m still trying to figure all of the features out on this blog but I’ve just added a new one: a calendar which will appear at the top of the page and shows dates when I have posted. It also means you can navigate backwards through the calendar to find earlier posts if you so wish.

    You can still find the Previous page/Next page navigation buttons at the bottom of the page if you want to work your way back directly.

    For those of you who are subscribed and getting the email updates when I post you’re probably only seeing one post at a time but if you click on the cross-stitch flower up in the top left that’ll bring you back to the home page to see multiple posts at a time. Which may not interest you at all, given that you’ve probably read them already.

    For those not subscribed but who want to be, you can either sign up for a free WordPress account and subscribe directly, or let me know the email address you want to use and I’ll add you (now that I’ve figured out how). If you don’t have my email address and want to get hold of me, use the “Direct contact” page linked on from the left side of the home page.

    On the other hand, if you’d rather just check in with what’s going on by using the website when it suits you, that’s fine too 🙂

  • October 2026
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    Moving days

    When we bought this house we knew the carpet was tired and old. It had a few stains and had jad a carpet beetle infestation. The beetles were gone, but they had let their mark.

    So we knew we would need to replace it at some point, but of course life got a bit complicated just after we moved in so it wasn’t a priority.

    But then a range of factors came together, and suddenly we were booked for July, which seemed perfect until I started having chemo.

    Anyway, we figured out dates between doses, planned how to move the furniture around so I could work while the carpet was being changed over, and got it done.

    The result is lovely, it’s been a messy week but it’s over and we’re very happy with it.

    Time for a photo montage.

    The office and our bedroom from the hall, before
    Our bedroom before
    furniture stacked in the dining room
    kids sleeping on mattresses in the lounge the night before day 1 of laying
    underlay in the office
    underlay in our bedroom
    office all done
    bedroom all done

    So that was last Thursday.  By Thursday night we had three rooms done, one bedroom and the lounge and stairs to go. They happened on Monday.

    Leroy exploring the view from up high
    And again (yes he climbed up here)
    The completed lounge
    The completed stairs

    So we’re all done.

    We’re still figuring out the best arrangement of some of the furniture but the carpet looks and feels nice.

    At some point we’ll get to doing the overlay flooring in the dining room, hall and kitchen, but that’s going to take awhile. We can live with the polyurethaned particle board for now.

  • October 2026
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    Still holding on…

    My hair, that is.

    Well, barely, but there’s still enough to look messy if it isn’t smoothed back and to wisp around my neck.

    It slowed right down after the chemo dosewhich makes me curious whether it will suddenly all shear off later this week since it only started halfway through week three last dose.

    I guess we’ll find out.

  • October 2026
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    Trudging back up the hill

    Misty rain over the harbour

    The weather suits my mood this morning. A bit dreary and tired, not sunny, not stormy, just plodding on.

    As I learned the first time round, days 5 through 7 are the low point, and so they remain. Different this time in a few minor ways but generally just something to get through as I can, and accept that I’m going to be tired and not know moment to moment what I want.

    It’s not as awful as it might be, I’m not physically ill – the medication handles that pretty well – but I have no energy, everything tastes wrong, and I can’t focus. It’s frustrating but I don’t even really have the energy to be frustrated by it.

    And then somehow by day 8, today, even though I’m not aware of anything really changing, it subsides away.

    Yesterday I did a half day’s work and it was interspersed with micronaps. It wasn’t a question of whether I should or shouldn’t lie down, I just alternated between needing to be down and being ready to be up.

    Today I’m nearly 4 hours in and haven’t needed a lie down yet. That could change in the next 5 minutes and if it does it does, but so far it just hasn’t come up. I don’t feel markedly different, it just is what it is.

    So as I look out on the misty rain, I think it’s quite fitting. It’s not cold, in fact it’s not even raining up by us, it’s just still. But it will pass, and so will this. Tomorrow, or perhaps Thursday, I’ll be pretty close to back to whatever normal is right now. Today I’m just wading through the mist, low effort and energy, but it’s not a bad place to be.

  • October 2026
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    Dose 2

    Blood test results were fine so dose 2 is going ahead on schedule.

    It’s been solidly pouring with rain all morning but we drove slow and arrived safe.

    No trouble with veins today, got it right first try, helped by a few days of extra hydration in preparation.

    The sun has now come out here which is nice, but we’ll be driving back into the rain when I’m done here.

  • October 2026
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    Semi-normality

    It’s been a week now since I posted about taste, and I’m happy to say that my tastes have returned almost to normal. Granted I’m going to ruin that again on Tuesday, but the worst of it really only lasted a couple of days and then gradually improved so every day is different.

    Speaking of normal, whether it was the change in my nausea medication or simply a coincidence in timing, it’s now been nearly a week since I stopped feeling queasy so that’s good too. I’ve had a very normal work week, able to think and interact and simply be at my desk. All of this is good, and bodes well for the cycle I’m going to put myself through five more times. Itseems the first couple of days aren’t so bad, then a couple of not great days, then a few improving days, then about a week of near normal.

    One thing that did come up in the side effects was hair loss. The chemo nurse confirmed that it was a given with this particular chemo drug so I’ve been paying attention but nothing seemed to be happening… until Wednesday. It was worse on Thursday. By Friday morning my hairbrush is getting clogged after a couple of gentle strokes. I pondered not brushing but if it’s going to come out then I figure it’s better controlled than shedding everywhere I go.

    I reckon I’ve lost somewhere between a third and half my hair in the past couple of days. I’ve stopped tying it in a ponytail,  that just pulls at it. Yesterday I tried a snood, which wasn’t bad but I’ve settled on a simple braid to pull the sides back from my face.

    My husband says it’s getting very thin at the back, but I can’t see that so not worrying about it. It’ll all be very thin soon enough.

    For now there’s still some to see. I wonder if that’ll be true in 3 weeks time. I also wonder, when it eventually grows back, what colour it’ll be. I’ve got a fair amount of silver threaded through the brown, will it mix the same or be stronger one way or the other? Well we’ll find out. In the meantime, here’s me with hair this morning…while I still have some 🙂

  • October 2026
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    A matter of taste

    There’s a stereotype that pregnancy causes all women to experience weird food cravings. That was never my experience, I had no cravings with either pregnancy, but with my first I did experience intolerances. Jut the thought of red meat while making a shopping list could leave me queasy, and I could smell salt at a significant distance. There was one time I was drawn from one end of the house to the other to find my husband innocently making himself a marmite sanwich. He was informed that it was not going to be eaten in the house, and obliging darling that he is, he took it outside.

    The theory on the cravings and intolerances is that it’s your body trying to help the baby by ensuring you’re getting the right balance of nutrients.  True or not, what is true is that during that first pregnancy I had issues with my gall bladder that resulted in it’s removal shortly after, so fats and salt were to be avoided.

    I reflect on that now as I’m on this chemo journey.

    Cancer likes sugar. I don’t know when I first heard that, years ago, but friends and family have been regularly reminding me of it since my diagnosis.

    As it happens, I don’t have that much of a sweet tooth.That might come as a surprise to anyone who has watched me select sweet options at a morning tea or cafe, but truly that isn’t so much preference as precaution.

    Given the audience for this blog most of you likely know this well, but for those who don’t: garlic is a trigger for my migraines. It is also insidiously present in all manner of sauces, spice mixes and other bases for savoury items, and unless it’s present in large quantities it isn’t generally required to be listed as an ingredient because it’s not a common allergen. Instead it is often just listed as spice.

    Long story short, what I make for myself I know to be safe, but if I’m out it’s often safer to simply choose sweet.

    Given that right now I’m really going nowhere while I’m immunocompromised, then, I can make choices for myself easy enough and cut down on the sweet. I’m not on any particular diet, other than avoiding spicy and fatty foods, it’s more about maintaining strength between doses.

    But what has been interesting since the chemo dose is the sense that my body doesn’t want sweet right now, just like it didn’t want salt in that first pregnancy. Not with anything like the same level of revulsion, but a firm sense that if I have a choice between a spoonful of ice cream or a spoonful of unsweetened yoghurt, I’ll take the yoghurt every time.

    I’ve known for months about being careful with sugar, that’s an intellectual thing. Now it’s suddenly more than that. Taste buds working or not, sweet just doesn’t appeal.

    I think I’ll listen to my body. It seems to know best.

  • October 2026
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    The view from Day 7

    Ask me yesterday and I would have been quite dubious about how much work I would achieve today, but overall I’m pleased. I got in 6 hours, which I think is respectable.

    Not that it was easy; the task I wanted to do would have been straightforward except the website I was relying on has been out all day so I had to work around that. And then just after I’d judged I’d had enough for the day, the town lost power so I would have been kicked out anyway.

    For the most part I think I’m doing okay. I stop when I have to, go when I can, and figure out the rest as best I can.

    Tomorrow is one week since the dose. Here’s hoping that things gradually improve with each coming day.